Character Analysis
Straight up, Dad is a pretty hard guy to like. He's married to Manny's mom and father to Manny, Nardo, Magda, and Pedi, but he doesn't always take his relationships with his family members seriously. Instead, he spends a ton of time drinking at the pool hall and not looking for a job, both decisions which majorly stress his family out.
Plus, Dad's on the violent side. He stomps around and yells at his kiddos all the time, and it's not a total surprise when he knocks stuff off shelves around the house. Oh, and who could forget the time he tries to shoot his wife and then lies about it to the police? All this violence makes it clear that he's actually one of the biggest jerks in the book. There are dads that help, and then there's Manny's dad, who—at best—mostly just gets in the way.
But despite his general terribleness, in a few moments Dad really steps up to the plate, too. One of these moments goes down when Magda has a serious fever after she's lost a premature baby. Everyone figures that Dad will lose his mind when he finds out what happened, but instead, he helps his daughter out:
In the bathroom, Dad put Magda, nightgown and all, inside the tub and bobbed her steady. […] She looked up at us staring down at her, and then, with a surprise that showed the fever had died, she looked at Dad, amazed. I don't know if it was because of the pain in his back, or the pain of seeing Magda sick, or both, but his face was trembling and red, as if blown by a hot, blurry wind. (8.65)
Dad definitely has his flaws, but he takes home the trophy for this one. We're not ready to call him Dad of the Year yet or anything, but he definitely pulls a one-eighty when he puts his daughter's health over his own pride. And did you notice how sensitive and careful he is with her? There's no yelling or stomping on this feverish night; instead, he does what needs to be done to make sure his daughter is okay. Thank goodness, too, because things aren't looking good for Magda before he steps in.
Is he a pretty rough guy to have as a parent? Absolutely. But maybe—just maybe—someday he'll come to his senses. After all, he's capable of doing so momentarily, so maybe he'll be able to in a bigger picture way down the road.